Airlines begin widespread flight cancellations as government shutdown drags into day 38

Airlines nationwide are slashing flights on Friday morning after an unprecedented order by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is feeling the effects of a record-long government shutdown.

The FAA announced it would scale back flights by 10% at “40 high traffic airports across the country,” which include major hubs across the country, such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. A 4% reduction in operations begins Friday, the FAA said, and will gradually ramp up to 10% by next Friday. 

There have been an estimated 1,199 flight cancellations and more than 13,000 delays, according to FlightAware’s tracker as of Friday morning. 

“Since the beginning of the shutdown, controllers have been working without pay, and staffing triggers at air traffic facilities across the country have been increasing,” the FAA said in a statement, noting that the increased strain on air travel led to 2,740 delays last weekend.  

“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people continue to fly safely,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said. 

Speaking to reporters at Reagan National Airport on Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he does not want to see the disruption or flight delays. 

 “If I can get the controllers to come back to work, I asked the head of the Air Traffic Controller union to reach out to his controllers, to ask them to show up. It is their job,” he said.  

“We have to take unprecedented action because we are in an unprecedented shutdown,” Duffy told CBS News. Earlier this week, Duffy warned that if Congress doesn’t come to an agreement to reopen the government soon, there will be “mass chaos” at airports across the country. 

“If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” he said. “You will see mass flight delays. You will see mass cancellations. And you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.” 

The government shutdown is entering its 38th day on Friday, and Democrats – bolstered by their election wins on Tuesday – are expected to block yet another GOP attempt to reopen it on Friday afternoon, Politico reported. 

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has urged Congress to “pass a clean continuing resolution to immediately end the government shutdown.” 

“For this nation’s air traffic controllers, missing just one paycheck can be a significant hardship, as it is for all working Americans. Asking them to go without a full month’s pay or more is simply not sustainable,” NATCA president Nick Daniels said in a statement, noting the “extremely stressful” nature and long hours that are expected of air traffic controllers. “It is incredibly unfair to expect hard-working, patriotic American air traffic controllers and their families to bear the full burden of policy disagreements in Congress.”